Ti 






ADDKESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



N.I. 




iiDirn 




i 





At the Annual Meeting, Albany, February 10, 1859, 
BY WILLIAM T. McCOUN. 



A. D r> R E s s 



DELIVERED AT THE 



ANNUAL MEETING 



N. Y, STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 



ALBANY, FEBRUARY 10, 1859, 



By WILLIAM T. McCOUN, President, 



ADDRESS OF ABRAHAM. B. CONGER, 

ON TAKING THE CHAIR AS PRESIDENT ELECT. 



%*BICt3^ 







PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 



ALBANY: 

PRINTED BY CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN. 

1859. 



<b 






ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the Society — Aware that there 
is due to this occasion something beyond the mere 
form of leave taking, with expressions of personal 
respect and regard for the members of the Society, 
with whom it has been my happiness to associate, 
in the management of its affairs, during the year 
past ; yet I fear that what I have to offer, may 
somewhat tax your courtesy. 

We are now at the close of another year's 
transactions of this Society, and I congratulate 
you that nothing has occurred to lessen our inter- 
est in its prosperity, or to impair the public 
confidence it has hitherto inspired. Steadily the 
Society has continued its onward march towards 
the great objects of its institution, " the improve- 
ment of the condition of Agriculture, Horticul- 
ture, and the Household Arts." 

It has constantly stood by the requirements of 
its charter, and has ministered to the wants of 



these paramount interests, by collecting and dif- 
fusing knowledge, and by encouragement given 
to all classes in these various useful pursuits. 
Excellence in the productions of all departments 
of the farm, the garden, and the household, has 
been liberally rewarded. 

Improvement in the farm itself, the soil, the 
best method of cultivation, including the best 
time and manner of applying manures, and the 
growing of the largest crops, has met with simi- 
lar encouragement. So has the inventive genius 
of the country, when devising new agricultural 
implements and machinery, or when improving 
upon the old, to facilitate the labors of the farm. 
In all these directions, the influence of the Society 
has been exerted, and with good effect, as our last 
annual fair, like those which preceded it, abun- 
bantly proved. I need only to refer to the Report 
of the Executive Committee, jDrepared by the 
Secretary, with his wonted ability and accuracy, 
for all the information that can be desired on the 
subject. 

The constantly growing necessity for increasing 
the productiveness of the soil, in order to meet 
the demands of human wants, must naturally lead 
to improvements in the art of Husbandry, through- 



out its various departments. Improvement, how- 
ever, in this as in every thing else, that relates 
to man's social and moral condition, depends 
primarily upon the educational means provided 
for the masses, and the consequent spread of 
useful knowledge. The sources of knowledge are 
now open to all alike ; to the poor as well as to 
the affluent. With the acquisition comes power, 
for " knowledge is power," and it is that quality 
in man, derived from his physical education, as 
well as from his mental and moral training, that 
fits him for his laborious duties as a tiller of the 
soil, in the great work set before him, " of earn- 
ing his bread by the sweat of his brow." 

This subject of agricultural education, in all 
its bearings upon civilization and social enjoy- 
ments, has lately been presented to our considera- 
tion, in the admirable address of Mr. Williams, 
of Michigan, which is now before us in print. 
The subject is there discussed with eminent 
ability. I regard it as a production worthy of 
all commendation, and one which we cannot too 
highly appreciate, as a valuable contribution to 
our stock of agricultural papers. 

Next to a thorough knowledge of farming, one 
great means of success in its operations is, the 



6 

use of improved implements and labor saving 
machines. The last half century has been pro- 
ductive in these respects. Implements adapted 
to every kind of work have been greatly multi- 
plied. Those formerly in common use have been 
remodeled and much improved, lessening by their 
use the severity of toil, and rendering the work 
of the farmer more effective and economical. 
Among these enumerate the mowing machine, 
the horse rake, the reaper, the thrasher and 
separator, all worked by horse power, and by 
successive improvements in construction, brought 
to a great degree of perfection, and we have the 
heavy work of the farm and the barn, hay making 
and harvesting, thrashing and winnowing, per- 
formed in a much shorter space of time than 
formerly, and at a greater saving of expense and 
manual labor. 

But while these improvements are in progress, 
there is another j>ower greater than has ever yet 
been employed upon the farm, ready, as it would 
now seem, to take the field, there to do man's bid- 
ding in the cultivation of the soil, whenever his 
inventive faculties shall devise the method of 
rendering it there as elsewhere, subservient to 
his will. 



The time for subduing this power, and bringing 
it into use for certain purposes, was ushered in 
with the present century ; not, however, to meet 
the demands of agriculture, for these were not 
then thought of, but for objects, perhaps, then 
deemed of more practical utility than any other. 

The compressible and expansive properties of 
steam had become known. It was perceived that 
its elastic power might be turned to account. 
The minds of ingenious men were gradually drawn 
to the subject. The engine was constructed rudely 
at first ; experiment after experiment was made ; 
improvement followed upon improvement until at 
length the steam engine stood forth the giant of 
the earth, perfect in its proportions and adapta- 
tions, and whether as a stationary or a motive 
power ; whether for propelling ships or long lines 
of land carriages, is now justly regarded as the 
greatest achievement of human skill — of mind 
over matter, that the world has ever beheld. 

It is true, that some twenty-five years before 
the commencement of the present century, the 
steam engine was brought into use as a stationary 
power, in the working of mines and the driving 
of ponderous machinery. 



8 

James Watt, of Glasgow, though not the origi- 
nator, was the first to devise improvements that 
produced useful and satisfactory results. By the 
united genius of Watt, and of Boulton, of Bir- 
mingham, their engine was applied successfully 
to an apparatus, also of their construction, for 
striking off the sterling coin of England. Such 
was the perfection of this combined machinery, 
that four boys only ten or twelve years old, were 
capable of working it, and striking off thirty 
thousand guineas in an hour ; the machine itself 
keeping an unerring account of the number. As 
yet, no attempt was made to apply steam to the 
purposes of loco motion: but Doctor Darwin (a 
poet and philosopher of considerable celebrity 
in his day ), after describing the operations of 
Watt and Boulton's engines, thus prophecies with 
regard to the future of steam power : 

" Soon shall thy arm, unconquered steam, afar 
Drag the slow barge and drive the rapid car, 
Or on wide waving wings, expanded, bear 
The flying chariot through the fields of air. 
Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above, 
Shall wave their fluttering 'kerchiefs as they move, 
Or warrior bands alarm the gaping crowd, 
And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud." 

This was published as early as in 1782. 





The steamboat and the railroad have more than 
verified the prediction of the "barge" and the 
" car," and although we have not seen " the fly- 
ing chariot," with its "fair crews" or "warrior 
bands," there are those of soaring minds at this 
day, sufficiently credulous to believe, that this 
phenomenon may likewise happen. That immu- 
table law, however, by which " the apple from 
the tree falleth to the ground," is directly opposed 
to the fulfillment of such an expectation. We 
must be content with the more humble and less 
venturesome employment of steam. With the 
portable, and the fixed or stationary engine, steam 
has of late years become familiarized to the 
indoor work of the farm, to some extent, I 
believe, in this country, but to a far greater 
extent in Great Britain. The economy of it in 
large establishments appears to be admitted. 

Under these circumstances the question is often 
asked, why may not steam be employed in the 
outdoor work as well ? Such, for instance, as in 
the draining of land and the breaking up of the 
soil, preparatory to planting and sowing. This 
is the great problem with respect to steam machi- 
nery — its adaptation to the culture of the soil, 
which remains to be solved, and which is now 



10 

in the course of actual experiment. Under the 
encouragement held out by Agricultural Societies, 
in the offer of premiums (and in some instances 
to large amount), engines differing in form and in 
the manner of working, have been constructed 
and exhibited for trial within the past year ; one 
such is mentioned in the report of our executive 
committee. Another was produced by a citizen 
of Pennsylvania, and taken to Illinois, for trial 
upon the prairie land of that state, and has, in a 
measure, proved successful. It is represented as 
an engine adapted to locomotion, drawing a 
gang of plows or plow shares, cutting regular 
furrows, and turning with ease and precision. 
(Whether the premium of the Agricultural Society 
of Illinois has been awarded to this engine or 
not, I have, not ascertained.) These two, I 
believe, are the only instances of experiments 
yet made in this country with steam power, 
adapted to the work of cultivating the soil. 
The newspapers, however, inform us that a num- 
ber of steam plows, as they are called, are now 
in the process of construction in the state of 
Illinois, for the purpose of further experiments 
in plowing, and in draining, and in forming the 
ditch and hedge, to enclose their lands. Another 



11 

season will probably show the results of experi- 
ments in that direction with steam. 

In England, during the last twenty or twenty- 
five years, attempts have been often made to 
cultivate the soil, by steam power, in different 
ways, all passing under the general designation 
of "steam plowing;" but it never has been 
reduced to a perfectly successful operation, even 
in that country of systematic labor, where public 
spirited efforts, directed by their most enlightened 
men (and where, too, the increasing scarcity of 
laboring hands creates a demand for agricultural 
machinery ) are constantly being made to intro- 
duce improvements into their husbandry. A 
trial of a considerable number of engines, con- 
structed upon different principles, and intended 
to operate in different ways, took place at the 
Chester meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society 
in the last summer. 

The Society's prize of j£500 was awarded to a 
portable engine, though fixed or stationary while 
at work, having six plows, and working three 
at a time alternately, by means of anchors and 
pulleys, a man walking by the side of the plows 
to keep them steady. This engine was found to 
do the best work of any on trial, but it is said 



12 

the work was not as good as that of ordinary 
plows in common use, nor such as good farmers 
required from their plowmen. 

The next best was a traction engine, moving 
forward on a revolving endless railway of its 
own, carrying six plows and turning as many 
furrows at a time. An eye witness of the per- 
formance of this engine, says of it, that it appeared 
to be capable of performing its duty. It walked 
across the field ( which was level, and free from 
obstructions of any kind ) with as much regularity 
as a team ; carried out its plows, and turned 
with so much precision, as to leave but few balks, 
and showed that it was not so much the fault of 
the engine as it was the fault of the plows, that 
the work was not more perfectly done. 

Even with the imperfect success which attended 
the trials of these engines, and the qualified 
praise they received, they were nevertheless 
regarded as having demonstrated the practica- 
bility of using steam advantageously in the cul- 
tivation of the soil, and with economy likewise, 
when compared with animal power. 

Indeed, the year 1858 is claimed as the com- 
mencement of a new era in British farming, since, 
by means of such engines and machinery as 



1 9 
lo 

Fowler's (the one to which the prize was awarded), 
they can hereafter, almost regardless of the 
weather, accomplish the autumn plowing of their 
heavy soils, heretofore often very much delayed by 
rains, and sometimes either impossible, or very 
difficult of accomplishment with horse labor, and 
the ordinary implements of the farm. 

I have stated these facts in relation to the 
introduction of steam culture, mainly for the 
purpose of drawing your attention to one point 
in connection with it, which seems to me deserv- 
ing of general consideration, and especially of 
the consideration of those among us, whose genius 
or mechanical skill may incline them to look into 
the subject. Hitherto, as you may have observed, 
the principal effort has been, both here and in 
England, to get up steam machinery for the cul- 
ture of the soil, through the medium of the 
plow. The idea most prevalent is, that the 
plow in some form of combination, is still to be 
retained and used with the engine, and that there 
is no need of any other contrivance to which the 
power is to be applied or attached. Just so it 
was with Ramsey's experiment on the Potomac, 
and with Fitch's on the Delaware, when they 
undertook to apply steam to the propelling of 



14 

boats. They thought only of the oar as the im- 
plement to which the new power could be so 
easily and successfully applied. So, likewise, 
when machinery was first brought into use in the 
thrashing of grain, the flail was retained as the 
implement, fixed to the arms of a revolving shaft 
or a reel, and made to strike in rapid succession 
on the thrashing floor. 

A short time, however, sufficed to show that 
the oar and the flail, efficient as they were in the 
hand accustomed to use them, were but ill suited 
to inanimate machinery, and were soon displaced 
to make room for the paddle wheel and the toothed 
cylinder. In like manner the plow, as general 
as is its employment in all civilized countries, as 
much as it has been extolled for its usefulness in 
all ages of the world ; reverenced for its antiquity, 
and "crowned with wreaths," as the symbol of 
the art that " calls forth the harvests," is never- 
theless destined to be laid aside, with other primi- 
tive inventions, as a thing out of place, when 
attached to the farm engine. There will still be 
ample employment for the plow in its proper 
place, that is, in its connection with animal power, 
and the horizontal draft of the ox and the horse. 
In that connection we can never entirely dispense 



15 

with it. There is much land deserving of high 
cultivation, where the steam engine cannot be 
made available, and which can only be broken up 
by manual labor and by the plow and the team. 
The spade in the hands of the laboring man 
accustomed to its use, is a more efficient instru- 
ment in respect to the quality of the work, than 
the plow and its congeners are capable of doing, 
but where considerable areas of land are to be 
improved, spade husbandry is out of the question. 
It is too slow and expensive an operation for the 
farm. Necessity compelled the resort to animal 
power, for the purpose of general tillage, and the 
plow was devised as the implement best suited 
to the capacity of that species of power. With 
the animal fur draft, the plow came into general 
use ; but we all know that the work which the 
plow performs is always imperfect and incom- 
plete ; that its operation is only the beginning — 
the incipient step in the process of good cultiva- 
tion, and that it requires to be followed by various 
other implements to complete the work it has 
begun. The plow, moreover, is objectionable 
in another respect — an objection which lies deeper 
and is very liable to be overlooked, indeed, too 
much so by the generality of farmers. I allude 



16 

to the unavoidable pressure which it exerts upon 
the subsoil. The wedge like form and action of 
the share in being driven through the soil, though 
splitting oft" and raising a portion of it to be 
turned over, produces a corresponding downward 
pressure, and leaves a smooth and glazed surface 
beneath the sole, and to this add the trampling 
in the furrow, and we have a compact and solid 
substratum underlaying the whole plowed sur- 
face, almost impenetrable to the roots of plants, 
and unfavorable to their full development. This 
can only be remedied by the subsoil plow, 
loosening the earth below, but involving a double 
expenditure of both time and labor in the very 
first operation towards good tillage. For these 
reasons, it appears to me that the plow share in 
common use, or other implements acting upon the 
same principle, should not any longer be thought 
of in connection with steam power. Let that 
idea be abandoned, and when steam shall be hum- 
bled to the outdoor work of the farm, let its 
object be a higher and a nobler performance than 
the mere drawing of the plow. 

The mechanism of the engine should be such 
as to possess the means of itself, and within itself, 
to accomplish such a work, and when it shall be 



17 

seen, "a' field walking like a thing of life," let 
not the indignity be put upon it, of harnessing it 
to the plow. There is something about the 
motions of the engine, which seems to me to 
despise the labor of tugging at the plow beam, 
or the pole or shafts of any mere land carriage, 
but like another Hercules, it prefers to put its 
shoulder to the wheel, and there to exert its 
strength. It is frequently remarked of steam, 
that it is a great " revolutionist." This is true 
in more than a mechanical sense, but I am now 
speaking of it only as a mechanical power, capa- 
ble of being applied to the work of thoroughly 
breaking up and comminuting the soil. For this 
purpose a transverse cylindrical shaft has been 
suggested, affixed to the hind part of the engine, 
armed with strong steel pointed claws, to operate 
upon the soil as the shaft revolves with the for- 
ward motion of the engine. The skillful mechanic 
may take the idea from this suggestion. 

In many things nature furnishes the type or 
model for man to work from, in the exercise of 
his inventive faculties. She sets before him nume- 
rous examples of perfect models, wrought with 
great skill and beauty, from which he may take 
3 



18 

instruction. "Learn of the mole to plow," is 
one of the lessons she gives. 

This seemingly insignificant animal ; this little 
earthling, is indeed an instructor and a friend of 
man, though sometimes hunted and destroyed as 
an enemy. 

Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, speaking from the 
experience and observation of thirty years, pro- 
nounces the destruction of moles as having dete- 
riorated sheep pastures, and to have been followed 
by the pining and the foot root among sheep 
stock ; and the story is told of a worthy old gen- 
tleman, a sagacious observer, who to his dying 
hour would not suffer a mole upon his grounds to 
be harmed. He had reclaimed from a waste his 
whole paternal estate, and laid it in grass fields, 
and he maintained that the moles were his laborers, 
yearly top dressing his lands, and adding to the 
depth of the soil and fertility of the sward; and 
the writer acids, that every field seemed to bear 
evidence of the good effects of this species of 
natural fertilizing. 

In another way the mole renders an important 
service to the farmer. It is known that he is a 
very voracious feeder ; he subsists on worms and 
the larvae of insects which he finds under ground, 



19 

where no other enemy can reach them, and at 
night he sallies forth and pursues his prey on the 
surface. It is probable, then, that he destroys a 
vast number of grubs and other creatures whose 
ravages would all be felt in their season ; but it 
is not to his instincts, so much as to his physical 
organization, that I would direct your attention. 
Who has seen this little fur clad animal working; 
his way along beneath the surface of the earth, 
as if he were in the act of tunnelling for an 
"under ground railroad," and has not wondered 
at the power he displays in his subterranean 
occupation. You see the small ridge he has raised 
in his progress, occasionally terminating in a little 
hillock. Examine it, and you will find the parti- 
cles of soil thoroughly disintegrated, and ready 
for use, in the formation of a most perfect seed 
bed. How has this effect been produced. The 
implement used in the operation is not a spade nor 
a plow; nature has provided him with a better 
contrivance, perfectly adapted to his case, and 
which man may use for a pattern. It is something 
in shape between a foot and a hand, armed with 
strong and robust claws. If perchance the creature 
is thrown on the surface, observe the eifort he 
instantly makes to bury himself again beneath it, 



20 

and how tenacious appears to be the hold which 
he takes of the earth by means of these claws, 
and with what speed his purpose is accomplished. 
In this simple operation, guided by the unerring 
instinct of the little creature, provided with the 
proper implements, we have foreshadowed a 
method of disintegrating the soil by steam power, 
now placed at man's disposal. Let then the 
moles claw serve as the type of the implements 
with which the engine shall be armed, and we 
shall presently see the work of large farms greatly 
accelerated, and cultivation much more efficient 
and productive than by any other means. 

In thus advocating the cause of steam culture 
in the way suggested, I must not be understood 
as supposing that it will ever be a matter of 
universal adoption. It may be brought into 
common use in many parts of our country, but 
cannot be brought into general use. It is only 
farming on a large scale that will justify the 
outlay, or a number of small farmers favorably 
located with respect to each other, ma}^ perhaps 
combine, to own an engine between them, yet 
the old methods of cultivation must still be pur- 
sued on a very large proportion of farms. Never- 
theless, on the broad prairie and bottom lands of 



21 

the west, on all smooth and level surfaces free 
from obstructions, it will be a gratifying spectacle 
which is already in our minds eye, anticipating 
the event of this great improvement of our age 
(the farmers steam engine), taking the place of 
the dull plodding plow, and performing its daily 
rounds of toil, honoring the practice of husbandry, 
man's first and best and noblest calling. 

It is claimed in behalf of the inventive talent 
of Great Britain, and why may it not be in 
behalf of that of our own country ? that when 
the steam engine shall be brought to that degree 
of completeness for field work, which is now 
expected of it, so that it shall prepare the soil in 
the best possible manner for the reception of the 
seed, it will, at the same time, be able to carry 
along with it the seed drill and the roller, and 
thus, unlike the hand of the sower in the parable, 
the seed shall not fall by the way side, nor in 
stony places, but fall in good ground, to bring- 
forth its fruit accordingly. 

I cannot forego the pleasure which this oppor- 
tunity affords me of saying a word or two here 
in commendation of an author who has presented 
a very conclusive argument in favor of steam 
culture, unconnected with the plow. It is con- 



22 

tained in a small volume, called " Talpa, or the 
chronicles of a Clay Farm," written in a pleasing 
style, abounding in practical good sense, and with 
a rich vein of humor underlaying the whole 
work. We have an American edition of the book 
from the Buffalo press, with a handsome intro- 
duction, and useful and judicious notes, by a 
member of this Society. In a new " Cyclopedia 
of Agriculture," recently published in Great Bri- 
tain, composed entirely of original articles on the 
theory, the art, and the business of farming, as 
practiced there at the present day, and in the 
contributions to which, the talents of more than 
fifty of the most eminently practical and scienti- 
fic men of that kingdom have been employed ; 
this same author ( Mr. Hoskyns ) has contributed 
an article on "steam culture," in which much of 
the argument before used is reiterated and en- 
forced. He remarks that the impediments steam 
power, in the work of cultivation, has had to 
encounter, haye been those of delay, rather than 
of denial, and the delay itself has been due rather 
to error than neglect ; the error so long persisted 
in, of regarding the plow as the sine qua non of 
field cultivation, and the necessary medium through 



which the steam engine was to be applied to that 
purpose. 

Again, the author says in conclusion, and I 
cannot do better than quote his words, in bringing 
my own remarks to a close : "It does not appear, 
from any past experience, that the accomplish- 
ment of the most difficult mechanical or other 
processes, or the most surprising feats of inven- 
tion, have any practical effect in removing the 
distrust we still retain of future triumphs of 
inventive skill ; nor are there wanting minds so 
singularly constituted, as to find matter of con- 
gratulation that the culture of the soil has hitherto 
presented an insoluble difficulty to that great 
modern invention, which multiplies so amazingly 
the power of the human hand, and by economizing 
its labor, cheapens the products which toil wrings 
from nature ; but fortunately, invention outruns 
distrust, and surmounts, step by step, the barriers 
of alleged impossibility, and if it sometimes have 
to submit to the rebuke of counting prematurely 
on its unaccomplished triumphs, it may find sup- 
port for perseverance, by turning from the appa- 
rent discouragements of the present to the annals 
which extend backward, from the last page just 
turned over, to be included in the past." 



24 

Gentlemen, allow me to congratulate you on 
the choice you have made of a Presiding Officer 
for the ensuing year. It is with great pleasure 
that I now resign my place to him, who will bring 
to the performance of its duties a talent and an 
energy that will reflect an honor upon the Society, 
and great credit upon the State to which it belongs. 
For myself, let me say that during the short 
period of time that may still be allotted to me 
on earth, I shall be happy to co-operate with you 
in the good work you have now in charge, of j3ro- 
moting the permanency of this Society, and the 
prosperity of the farming interests thoughout our 
whole country. 



EEMAEKS 

OF 

ABRAHAM B. CONGER, 

THE 

NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT, 

ON TAKING THE CHAIR. 



Gentlemen, Fellow Members of the Agricultu- 
ral Society of the State of New York. — It is 
my privilege to express at this time a grateful 
appreciation of the trust which, in accordance 
with your constitution, you repose anew in your 
Presiding Officer. 

A trust it is, which in the minds of all men, justly 
carries with it a sense of high honor conferred, 
while to such as are intent upon the issues of 
its fulfilment, it speaks of a large responsibility. 

You, gentlemen, who have so generously called 
me to this post of duty and honor, will not charge 
me with any affectation of self distrust, when I 
4 



26 

say that I have been emboldened to assume this 
responsibility, and this trust to accept, moved 
alone and supported in such decision by those 
kind expressions and those hearty assurances of 
especial support which you have been pleased to 
extend. The earnest co-operation which you so 
uniformly render, that you may advance the pros- 
perity of our Society, and through it that of the 
farming interest at large, is the only ground on 
which I rest any expectation of success in the 
discharge of the duties that may devolve upon 
me ; and I may add that I consider it as not only 
the secret of your strength at home, but the 
measure also of your renown abroad. 

I -may repeat, with pride, that which I first 
learned with the same emotion, when, as one of 
your delegates to the United States Agricultural 
Society, I was in attendance upon its last session 
in Washington. When the principal business of the 
Society was over, as I happened to be conversing 
on the conditions of its prosperity, and the expe- 
rience gained in the conduct of such associations 
throughout the country, a delegate from a sister 
state, who, from his commanding position in the 
Agricultural world, has enjoyed singular opportu- 
nities for the forming of such an opinion, said to 



27 

me, and with great enthusiasm: "Ah ! that is a 
noble society of yours in the State of New York ; 
it stands the foremost in the Union." Elate with 
the feeling which this compliment had aroused, I 
interposed, as with a view of ascertaining the 
facts or impressions on which he rested such an 
estimate of our worth; "But I thought that the 
Society in your own state made a strong claim 
to this leadership." "Ah," said he, "you have 
such a noble band of men ; you work so har- 
moniously together." 

We may continue, gentlemen, to be worthy of 
such encomium, as we manifest an abiding resolu- 
lution to cast aside all local jealousies, personal 
prejudice, and casual differences of sentiment, 
and to stand side by side in the fellowship of this 
great work, sustained in our purpose not only by 
the incentives furnished by the past, but by the 
natural outgoings of our daily life. No class of 
men feel so constantly the obligation of undaunted 
labor, are so nerved under a lowering sky, and 
conduct themselves so buoyantly through antici- 
pations of danger, as those whose hourly task 
brings them in close communion with nature, and 
acquaints them with her varied teachings. 



28 

As when at some calm twilight hour, the droop- 
ing grain begins to rear its bowed head, and the 
blade which wilted under the fierce ray, is bathed 
with the gently falling dew, or the stem, which 
shook in the strong blast, returns erect, and 
stretches to a higher bent, and soon each tiny 
pore is ojoed to catch from earth and air new 
measures of nourishment and growth — we see 
that our despondency over a stricken crop was 
inopportune, that the processes of development 
and fecundity have been re-established — and that 
with a firmer hold — and believe that ere long each 
harvester will come in swaying under his golden 
load ; so when, in the councils which shape the 
work of each succeeding year, should it happen, 
however rarely, that they are disturbed with 
divided thoughts or jarring schemes, smit with the 
fierce breath of passion, or scathed with the keener 
phrases of debate, and auguries become rife of 
intestinal discord and permanent schism, soon that 
which was but a trial of our strength is at an end ; 
what threatened a breach, cements our union ; we 
stand upon what has been decided, and feel 
reassured of harmonious action and more exalted 
achievement. 



29 

Gentlemen, may it be our happy lot, as we 
come hither at the close of another year, and 
pass in review our labors and our success, to know 
that we have brought not only increased products 
from our herds and fields to fill the lap of com- 
merce, but contributions from new paths of nature 
explored to add to the swelling treasures of 
science, and with fresh zeal and maturer purposes, 
to devote our energies to our great enterprise, 
true to the motto so dear to a New Yorker, the 
record of our past and the pledge of our future, 
" Higher, Higher still." 



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